Microsoft Bans Gamer for Living in Fort “Gay” Virginia

This is hilarious! Microsoft apparently banned a gamer from its online community because his profile said that he was from the town of “Fort Gay” in Virginia. Microsoft and the Xbox Live team had banned the gamer citing violation of gamers’ code of conduct. Microsoft had thought that the gamer was identifying his sexual preference by calling his home town to be “Fort Gay”.

The gamer, Josh Moore on finding out that his account was locked, did appeal to Microsoft and to the Xbox Live teams but it was a while before Microsoft realised its mistake. Microsoft and Xbox Live have since apologised to the 26 year old gamer and also to the entire town of Fort Gay.

Josh Moore said that convincing Microsoft that his town is for real was very difficult. He had to get to his local mayor David Thompson and also to the local media to get the issue resolved. The Xbox Live chief enforcement officer Stephen Toulouse acknowledged the incident and said that the agent reviewing a fellow gamers’ complaint against Josh Moore failed to check for the town name and was at fault.

Fort Gay appears in the records in 1789, when 11 people established a settlement near Louisa. In 1875, it was chartered as Cassville but changed its name to Fort Gay. A simple Bing search would have solved the issue.